


How High (Did You Jump This Time)

by phoenixandphilosopher



Series: As It Seems [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter Friendship, Harry is a Good Bro, Hermione goes too far sometimes, This has been building for a while
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 14:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13366596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixandphilosopher/pseuds/phoenixandphilosopher
Summary: Someone’s fucking with the Hufflepuffs. Of course it’s Draco’s fault.





	How High (Did You Jump This Time)

It’s not until the third time one of the Hufflepuffs finds themselves unable to get into their common room that Ron and Hermione start paying attention. They’d thought, Harry knows, that it had been a mistake on the part of the students involved, two first years who got the pattern wrong. But when seventh year Terence Bigsby finds himself completely unable to recall the pattern for the door and is forced to sleep in the corridor, the Head Boy and Head Girl accept that it’s probably not an accident or incompetence. 

The fourth student, a second year girl named Annie Dresden, ends up unconscious after her failed attempt to enter the common room results in what Madam Pomfrey calls a “nasty booby trap” going off in her face. Hermione sees a blonde head listening to the story as Ron tells her what’s happened, and marches straight to McGonagall’s office, taking Harry and Ron with her. 

Harry seats himself and listens to Hermione relay the events to the Headmistress, paying very little attention while they back and forth about it. If he’s being honest, it sounds like a fourth year just discovered the Confundus charm and the spell-activated explosions Harry himself had helped George develop for the shop. Use the wrong spell, and it goes off in the face of the person standing in front of it. 

He tunes back into the conversation twenty minutes later, when Hermione starts talking about malicious intent and what she’s calling “a continuation of targeted attacks started by the Carrows last year.” He thinks she’s exaggerating, sure, but Ron and Professor McGonagall are nodding along so he doesn’t bother getting involved. 

Turning his thoughts to the Charms essay he’s got due in two days, he only vaguely hears the Headmistress ask if they’ve discovered who’s doing it. His attention, however, focuses on them completely when the words “Draco Malfoy” come out of Hermione’s mouth. He’s dumbfounded as McGonagall, nodding and tapping her quill on the desk, says she’d hoped for better, that it’s not that surprising, that Mr Malfoy needs to understand that this bullying culture will no longer be tolerated at Hogwarts. 

“How dare you.” 

It’s not until everyone in the room turns to look at Harry that he realises both the words and the dark, angry tone that accompany them have come from him. 

“Excuse me?” McGonagall just looks confused. “Is there a problem, Harry?” 

He stands from the chair in the corner where he’d been sitting, out of the way of Hermione’s tirade and Ron’s protective anger. 

“How dare you?” he repeats. Hermione opens her mouth, closing it immediately when she sees the look he shoots her. “What in the name of Merlin makes you think any of you have the right to say this sort of shit?” 

“It’s Malfoy, Harry!” Ron’s looking at him like he’s lost his mind, waving his hands in the air as he talks. “Of course we have the right, he’s a complete-“ 

“Thank you, Ronald,” McGonagall interrupts him. “Please watch your language, Harry. Based on Mr Malfoy’s history-“ 

“Yeah, no.” It’s Harry interrupting McGonagall now, and he thinks briefly that he’s never spoken like this in front of the Headmistress, let alone to her. “That’s just not going to work. You don’t get to sit here and accuse him of being behind every little thing that goes on just because of the past.” 

“He’s a DEATH EATER!” Ron practically shouts. Harry’s temper, never known for its strength and resilience, snaps. 

“WAS! He WAS a Death Eater, and not by fucking choice!” At Ron’s snort of derision Harry’s anger only swells. “I’ve been inside his fucking head, Ron, I’ve lived it with him so I think we can all agree that I know more about it than you do!” McGonagall clears her throat and Harry turns without pausing in his rant. 

“As for your comments, Headmistress, which can only be described as slander, given the complete lack of evidence that Draco was ever anywhere near the damn Hufflepuff common room, or has been interested in childish pranks since the age of fifteen, I’m disgusted. A large portion of the blame for Draco’s actions, in my opinion, needs to be shifted from Voldemort and his thugs and placed with this school.” McGonagall’s jaw drops at his words, Hermione actually squeaks in shock, and Ron’s gone puce. 

“Did anyone stop to think, for one fucking second, that he was a child? Everyone loves to point out how young I was when I was fighting the Dark Lord himself, and yet don’t want to admit that I wasn’t forced to live with the man, bend to his will, or kill for him! As far as I’m concerned, all of you,” he points at McGonagall, and then Dumbledore and Snape’s portraits (both of whom are watching in interest) in turn, “and every other teacher who worked here while we were students failed him. He was alone, and terrified, suffering verbal, physical and emotional abuse, and not one fucking adult here did a fucking thing to save him. He saved my life, even after all the shit he grew up listening to, despite the fact that the people in charge of his care, education and general well-being never gave a shit because his name is Malfoy and his robes are green. It’s disgusting. And now, on top of all that, while he tries desperately to prove himself, to move on with his life, to try and heal, you’re accusing him of fucking with the Hufflepuffs.” 

Hermione looks stunned, Ron looks confused and McGonagall’s expression is completely blank. 

“Take it from the Boy Who Lived Twice,” Harry says, walking to the door. “Draco doesn’t give a shit about the Hufflepuff Common Room. This has absolutely nothing to do with Death Eaters, or the Carrows, so stop making assumptions about people based on the scars Riddle gave them.” 

Pointing at his own forehead, he slips out of the door, leaving the others in silence.


End file.
